“When we have the type of offensive roster that we have, we feel like we have the ability to throw the football and to run it,” Falcons head coach Mike Smith said. “It’s going to really be based on how people try (to) defend us. We’ve said all along that we haven’t run as efficiently as we would’ve like to during the regular season.

“There was going to come a time when we (would) have to be able to run the ball.”

“We were able to control the line of scrimmage, for the most part,” Smith said.

And right from the get-go.

“When you give me creases like that, I’m going to take advantage of that every time,” Turner said.

“Because they played eight men in the box, we thought we could gash them for big plays,” Rodgers added.

On one such big-gainer, Rodgers trucked Seattle’s standout safety Earl Thomas and kept on chugging.

So, can the Falcons take what worked against the Seahawks and similarly hurt the league’s fourth best rushing defence, San Francisco?

“It’s just not that simple,” offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter said on Tuesday. “When a play works, it’s for a variety of reasons: sometimes scheme, sometimes matchup. Sometimes, heck, how many times do you think Jacquizz is going to just run over their free safety? So there are just a lot of variables.”

Turner, 30, had run for more than 1,300 yards in three of the past four seasons. But with Atlanta’s transition to a pass-dominated attack completed this year, and with Rodgers providing a dangerous backup threat, Turner’s carries dropped by about a third. He gained 800 yards (22nd in the league). Rodgers gained 362 yards.

“If you’ve watched us this year, in a lot of our games when we got out to a fast start, we ran the ball well early,” Koetter said.

To do that against the Niners’ aggressive, highly athletic 3-4 front would be huge, as it would open up so many more opportunities for Ryan and his star receivers.

“We will have a plan … based specifically on how we can attack San Francisco,” Koetter said. “It will have nothing to do with last week, or any other week.”

One thing’s for sure. The element of surprise is gone.

“(The Falcons) showed that they could run the ball against a very good run defence,” 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh noted in his Monday press briefing.

You can sneak up and surprise an NFL team once. Twice? Forget it.

BY THE NUMBERS

The Atlanta Falcons surprisingly rushed for 167 yards against the Seahawks. These numbers underscore that unexpectedness:

Regular Season

vs. Seattle

Falcons Running Back

Carries

Yards

YPC

TD

F

Yards

YPC

MICHAEL TURNER

222

800

3.6

10

3

98

7.0

JACQUIZZ RODGERS

94

362

3.9

1

0

64

6.4

Jacquizz Rodgers shuts the door

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. – The best play by an Atlanta Falcons running back against Seattle wasn’t a run.